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Many Ways to Say HOW in Korean

HOW is kind of special because unlike other
question words, it is derived from a verb- 어떻다.
The formation is different when we ask how something is and how something is
done. For the first type, we normally conjugate 어떻다and
for the second type we use 어떻게. Let’s take a look at some examples.

요즘은어떻습니까?

How are things with you?

오늘기분은어때요?

How are you feeling today?

한국생활은어때?

How is your life in Korea?

학교를어떻게갑니까?

How do you go to school?

이걸어떻게먹어요?

How do you eat this?

이문제를어떻게풀어?

How do you solve this problem?

This analysis does
not work at all times though if we try to mirror the two languages more
closely. It is actually possible to use ‘어떻게’ with a
combination of ‘how and be’ and we can also use ‘어떻다’
with a combination of ‘how and do’.

아버님은어떻게지내세요?

How is your father?

내새신발이어때요?

How do you like my shoes?

Even the question
‘how do you like’ does not always require the verb 어떻다.
Say for example the sentence ‘How do you like my friend?’ You can say ‘내친구가마음에들어?’ Interestingly, we can actually form how-questions without
using 어떻다 or 어떻게. Here they are as follows.